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Tuesday, January 31, 2017

This past Christmas mom and I created key chains for the wonderful Zumba/Piloxing/HiiT instructors at Studio b and HiiT.

This is something new we are trying - and the ladies were nice enough to give us feedback on the pieces - and from the feedback we have made some modifications.

But - I wanted to share on how mom and I created the key chains.

Mom and I agreed on the size of the pendants - so printed off the pattern, cut them out and then glued the pattern to 20g copper. We then use a jewelers saw to saw out all the pendants.

All the pendants have been sawed out - and then I actually did something new - I used our flex shaft to file and sand the pieces. OMG - that went so much faster than doing them by hand. So, guess what, I am using the flex shaft from now on!!!!!!

Mom was then nice enough to write out all the phrases on the copper. She is so much better at that than me - she actually measures things out (me no measure at all!!!).

Here is the pendants ready to be stamped. This time I actually taped down the metal so it wouldn't move around on me while stamping. I still am not perfectly straight - but hey - it is handmade. You can sort of see the lines mom used to measure out the words on the copper.

It was a little chilly, out in the garage, as I was stamping the words and then texturing the copper. So, the heaters were out and trying to keep me warm.

You can see I was using a ball peen hammer this time to texture the copper pendants. I usually use the garage floor to texture the copper - but I was watching YouTube videos on how to texture copper - and someone recommended using a ball peen hammer. So, gave it a try and I like how it turned out.

Hard to see - but I used liver of sulfur to color the copper. After taking out the copper from liver of sulfur we used sand paper to take off some of the dark color - especially around the phrases - so it was easier to read.

And, this is the assembly line mom created to assemble the key chains together.

Below are the actual key chains we created. We also added a tassel to the bottom of the pendant. We used suede for the tassel.

b happy and b fun - key chain

b you and b brave - key chain

b determined and be inspiring - key chain

b happy and "Wake Up, Kick Ass, Repeat" - key chain

I can't wait to make more of these - I already have an idea of what I want to create for myself.